UK's PM Boris Johnson's Remarks at the CHOGM 2022 Opening Ceremony

IGIHE

Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/IgiheTV?sub_confirmation=1 Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/igihe DailyMotion: https://www.dailymotion.com/igihetelevision Twitter: https://twitter.com/IGIHE Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/igiheofficial Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/igihepictures/ Website: http://igihe.com/  #IGIHE #Rwanda

Transcript

00:00 Your Royal Highness, Your Majesties, President Kagame, Madam Secretary General, Your Excellencies,

00:08 ladies and gentlemen, I am honoured to perform the final duty of the United Kingdom as Chair

00:15 in Office of the Commonwealth and hand over the baton to President Kagame. I wish him

00:22 every success as Chair of our unique association, encompassing 54 countries and a third of humanities.

00:32 One of our newest members is now at the helm and more nations are seeking to join, which

00:39 tells you everything you need to know about the health and vitality of our Commonwealth

00:44 because for all the differences between us, we are united by an invisible thread of shared

00:52 values, history and friendship. The Head of the Commonwealth, Her Majesty the Queen incarnates

01:05 everything that brings us together and it's fitting that in the year of her platinum jubilee,

01:10 the association she cherishes should be gathering in the continent where she became Queen. When

01:18 the UK became your Chair in Office in 2018, the word COVID had not been invented. Many

01:25 of us had no idea what a coronavirus was and nobody could have known that the worst pandemic

01:33 for a century would soon claim millions of lives. The British Government put together

01:39 the partnership between Oxford University and AstraZeneca that produced the world's

01:44 most popular vaccine and during our time as Chair in Office, the UK supported the delivery

01:52 of more than 1.4 billion doses of COVID vaccines to Commonwealth countries. The pandemic posed

02:03 a common threat to all humanity and the same is true of catastrophic climate change. No

02:12 one understands this better than our Commonwealth friends in the Caribbean, the Pacific and

02:17 the Indian Ocean who can see the incoming tide surging ever higher up their beaches,

02:23 threatening to inundate their villages and towns and in time, the entire land mass of

02:29 some island states. For them, the baleful effects of climate change aren't vague or

02:38 theoretical but already happening before their eyes. When we hosted COP26 in Glasgow last

02:48 November, it was these fellow Commonwealth leaders who spoke with the greatest urgency

02:57 and authority about the perils of quilting the earth with greenhouse gases and we in

03:04 a developed world have an obligation to help our friends to cope with a danger they had

03:11 no hand in causing. And during the UK's time as Chair in Office, the Commonwealth

03:18 Finance Access Hub mobilised over $38 million for the most vulnerable members but of course

03:26 we must press on and do more. And if I could imagine a silver bullet that would solve an

03:35 array of problems and transform countless lives, it would be to give every girl in the

03:44 world the chance to go to school. At the last Chorgam in London in 2018, the UK announced

03:55 a £212 million for the Girls Education Challenge and I'm delighted to say that this initiative

04:02 is now at work in 11 Commonwealth countries ensuring that girls are able to gain at least

04:07 12 years of quality education. We need to empower them to play their full part in the

04:14 economy when they leave school so the UK is funding the SheTrades Commonwealth Programme

04:21 which has already helped over 3,500 women-owned businesses to become more competitive and

04:28 generate more than £32 million worth of sales. And if there is anyone who doubts the ability

04:35 of the Commonwealth to speak with one voice, it was in June 2020 that the UK delivered

04:42 the first ever joint statement by all 54 Commonwealth members before the Human Rights Council in

04:50 Geneva recalling, and I quote, "our proud history of acting to strengthen good governance

04:58 and the rule of law". One of the greatest affronts to everything we stand for is Russia's

05:05 invasion of Ukraine and Putin's blockade of the ports that would otherwise be shipping

05:12 food to the world's poorest people. At this moment, nearly 25 million tonnes of corn and

05:20 wheat is piled up in silos across Ukraine held hostage by Russia. Britain supports the

05:31 United Nations plan to get that food out and we will invest over £370 million in global

05:37 food security this year, including £130 million for the World Food Programme. We want to work

05:45 alongside our Commonwealth friends to understand your needs, your priorities and to deliver

05:54 joint solutions to a crisis that Putin has deliberately engineered. For now, it only

06:06 remains for me to thank every Commonwealth member for having given the United Kingdom

06:12 the chance to serve as Chair in Office. And as I pass on this responsibility to President

06:20 Kagame, a close friend and a partner, I know that he shares my boundless optimism about

06:30 the future of the Commonwealth at the forefront of the international agenda and benefiting

06:37 all our peoples. Thank you all very much.

06:41 [Applause]

06:45 [MUSIC PLAYING]

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended